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Joe Biden Told a False War Story on Campaign Trail: Report

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While campaigning for president, Joe Biden told a war story that turns out to be largely false, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Last Friday, during a campaign speech, Biden, 76, recalled a visit to Afghanistan’s Kunar province, in which a general asked him to pin a Silver Star on a Navy captain who braved enemy fire to retrieve the body of a fallen comrade. “This is the God’s truth,” Biden said. “My word as a Biden.”

However, according to the Post, “Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony.” Among the specific errors in Biden’s storytelling: There is no record of Biden pinning a Silver Star on a soldier; his visit to Kunar was in 2008, while still a senator; and the soldier who did perform the rescue Biden recalled was an Army specialist, not a Navy captain. The Post did find that Biden did, indeed, pin a medal on someone: Army Staff Sgt. Chad Workman.